Maligaon, June 6 (MExN): In order to connect farmers and markets across the country, the Indian Railways is continuing transportation of perishable agricultural products by running Kisan Rail trains, the Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Subhanan Chanda informed on Sunday.
In this regard, Business Development Units (BDU) have been set up at all Divisions and Zonal Head Quarters over Indian railways to look for new streams of traffic, collaborate with different state and central authorities, traders, farmers and manufacturers/producers and provide them with transportation and logistics solutions as per their requirement, he said in a press release.
In such an initiative, BDU of Lumding Division contacted the authorities of Tripura State Horticulture Department, traders and farmers of Agartala area and suggested the services of Kisan rail for transportation of jackfruits, pineapples, lemons and other agri-products of Tripura to larger markets in different parts of the country and abroad too. The efforts of BDU of Lumding Division have resulted in introduction of Kisan rails from Agartala to Delhi and Chitpur (Kolkata) from the month of June, the release stated. Meanwhile, NFR has already transported jackfruits of Tripura by train from Agartala to Guwahati for further shipment to United Kingdom by airways, it added.
The release stated that the Indian Railways has started running Kisan Rail train services, to transport perishables and agri-product, including milk, meat and fish etc. A subsidy of 50% is being granted on the transportation of fruits and vegetables via Kisan Rail and the primary objective of the service is to increase the income in farm sector by connecting production centres to markets and consumption centres, it added.
